China or the US? Europe’s ‘impossible choice’ in the trade war

Growing tensions between China and the United States over the escalating trade dispute – and the resulting global uncertainty – are forcing other countries to choose between the two economic superpowers.

The European Union, which is the world’s largest trading bloc and a top trading partner of both China and the US, is in a difficult spot since US President Donald Trump’s decision to ratchet up pressure on Beijing early this month – a move that included signing an executive order which effectively banned Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from accessing US supply chains.

“Europe is finding itself today in an extremely inconvenient position in which countries that seek to coexist with both China and the US are called to make an impossible choice and prove their allegiance to one of the parties over the other,” said Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, a Washington-based think tank.

As nationalist rhetoric heats up in the wake of an early-May breakdown in US-China trade talks, top officials from both countries have engaged in intense shuttle diplomacy aimed at securing support and shoring up alliances across Europe.

Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan, a close ally of President Xi Jinping who formerly led trade talks with the US, is visiting Germany and the Netherlands this week, just days after another top Xi aide, Li Zhanshu, the Communist Party’s third-most powerful cadre, wrapped up a trip to Hungary, Austria and Norway.

Wang’s trip will coincide with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s arrival in Berlin for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday. The US State Department said Pompeo would also visit the Netherlands, Switzerland and Britain.